Done And Done

I know I haven't posted in awhile, but I've just really lost interest in what this blog represents. I've seriously considered starting a new blog a couple of times and now I finally have. I've started a new blog called Pete on Software. It is pretty much purely technical, so I don't think I'll attract the same broad spectrum of readership as I did in my heyday, but I think I'll be more interested in keeping it up. I also won't have the same pressure to post daily like I did here at one time. All in all, a good thing for me.

Stop by if you'd like, you're more than welcome!

Pete
http://www.peteonsoftware.com/

Best Political Ad Ever

Checking In

What's up, peoples? I'm sure that any quasi-regular readers that I did have don't check that often anymore because I'm just not bringing the "quality" or the "quantity" that I was bringing.

Stuff has been pretty hectic here in my life. Work has been really busy since we lost one of our projects and had to let some people go. The company has set the finances though, so we have plenty of money for the foreseeable future. Now, we need to just get some more big projects! I'm fairly optimistic right now, considering.

For your enjoyment (and not to just be kind of a downer), here is a comic that I thought was kind of funny:

Party Plates

I live in a suburb east of Columbus, Ohio, but I work in Delaware, Ohio. It is a smallish town northwest of Columbus. It takes me between 45 minutes to an hour to get there.

Well, I thought that I'd share an observation that I've had about Delaware. There are seemingly more "party plates" per capita in Delaware than just about anywhere that I've been. Once I get in or near Delaware, I see them *everywhere*. I pass them on the road. I pass them parked on the side of the road. I see people leaving bars to get in them.

I wonder if it is my imagination or that people just having nothing better to do up there than drink and drive.

HP7

I've finished the final Harry Potter book. I was actually reading carefully and more slowly than usual, but was still knocking out over 100 pages an hour.

Best book of the series.

I'm not going to ruin anything, so I'll talk more about it later.

Soylent Green is People!

I finally watched the classic movie Soylent Green yesterday morning. It was the first movie that I watched using the new movie streaming service from Netflix that was added for no extra charge to my account. I had already known the premise of the movie, but felt like I was missing something having never seen the movie, so I went ahead and knocked it out.

It was okay, especially since I already knew the ending. I do think, however, that Charleton Heston is not a great looking man. I just don't understand how he was ever a heartthrob.

Yesterday was my birthday. I turned the big 3-Oh (born on 7-7-77, lucky me!), and had a pretty good day. I got some presents, some cash, and an IOU from G-Man and Trin for the 7th Harry Potter book when it comes out in two weeks. I just hope they aren't bringing Harry's death to my doorstep (or the death of any of the other two main kid characters either)!


G also took me to see Transformers on Monday and Tuesday as an additional part of the gift. That's right. I said Monday AND Tuesday. Let me explain.

We went on Monday evening to the first showing of the movie. Good times. We were all set. We got good seats and got to see about 40 minutes of the movie. Just as it was starting to get good and action packed... BOOM! Movie shuts off, lights flip on.

While we are going, "what the deuce?", a guy finally comes in and tells us that there is a blown transformer (no lie... the irony!) and that power is out in the entire area. They kicked us out and gave us passes to come back. So, we had to set it up so that we came back the next night (Tuesday) to watch it again. At least it was good!

Finally, I want to leave you with this thought from Transformers, Megan Fox is hot! I was hip to her leading up to the movie because she has been in a lot of magazines recently and I definitely noticed! Normally, I tend to lean toward blondes (like a Rachel Taylor - also in Transformers, or the lovely Lo), but Ms Fox definitely caught my attention. It might be the blue eyes against the dark hair, but whatever it is, she is pretty fine.

Click Thumbnail for Full-Sized Image

I may still have some piggish qualities in me, I can't help it! ;-)

Days Later In Gotham City

Wow, it has been over 3 whole weeks since I last posted. I feel so good!!! Not much has changed for me, so if I had been posting this whole time, they would have been hecka boring!

My job paid for me to go to Cedar Point with a few other co-workers to take some clients who really wanted to go. That rocked.

My fantasy baseball team is in first place. I think it is just cuz I work harder, I can't be THAT much smarter ;-)

I just got an email from Netflix today that they are automatically lowering the rate on my plan. In addition, I can watch 14 hours of movies and TV episodes instantly on my PC each month - for no additional charge. Bargain central, baby!

I'm working on a big project at work, integrating this one product into our company's product. I made a big breakthrough yesterday and everyone is pretty happy. Let's hope I keep at the continued success so I stay in the good graces!

Lastly, I also had a terrific adventure with my car. My serpentine belt broke while I was doing my killer commute. So, I'm stuck. I go to make a call, cell phone is out. I forgot to pay the bill. With Sprint, I could call only Sprint while my service was out and I figured Cingular/New AT&T would be the same. I would just call, pay the bill, and make my calls. No such luck.

So, I have to walk to the next exit (and cross the 4 lane freeway to get off). I hoof it about a mile before a nice man pulls over and drives me to a gas station. Additionally, he lets me use his cell phone to call someone from work to come get me. I had to leave a message and pray they were sending help.

After waiting 45 minutes, someone did come and I got to work. That evening, when I went to take care of my car, I found it had been towed. What the deuce!!! There was a car a mile south of mine that was there for the two days prior (and remained there for a few more going forward!). So, I ended up having to pay to get it out of impound. Sucked.

My friend had AAA and had it towed to his place, where one of my co-workers in their carpool would take a look at it Monday. That was the plan, anyway. Turned out my co-worker was there using the other guy's (also a co-worker) pool at his apartment complex, so he just volunteered to fix it there.

It took us a while, but we got it done for the cost of the belt (and dinner for the amateur mechanic and his girlfriend). Car runs like a champ now. Except for no A/C (but that hasn't been working for months).

I need a new car...